While pursuing her masters in Library Science, author and archivist Rosie Grant created a TikTok account called GhostlyArchive, which focused on unique gravestones.  

She discovered Naomi Miller-Dawson's recipe for Spritz Cookies carved into her headstone at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., and decided to post the process of making the cookies for her TikTok audience. "My world overnight blew up," she told "Sunday Morning." It was like crazy, the response from people."

She soon learned of a particular niche in cemetery testaments: recipes etched in stone, immortalizing the loving dishes that the dearly departed had cooked or baked in life for their loved ones. She's now collected the recipes and the stories behind them in a new book, "To Die For." 

Naomi's son, Richard Dawson, told "Sunday Morning" that her Spritz Cookies were family favorites: "Not only when we eat them; you just have to smell them baking. It brings back the memories of, you know, Christmas past and different holidays and events."

Spritz Cookies
By Naomi Miller-Dawson
Makes 36 cookies

Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter or margarine, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Optional: Dried fruit, chopped nuts, or chocolate chips, for decorating

Special Equipment:
Cookie press

Instructions:

In a large bowl, cream the butter thoroughly. Gradually beat in the sugar, vanilla, and egg.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Gradually add the flour mixture into the sugar and mix until thoroughly combined. The resulting dough should be soft.

Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 400°F.

Working in batches, squeeze the dough through a cookie press onto an ungreased baking sheet. Leave about 2 inches between the cookies. If desired, you can decorate the cookies with bits of dried fruits, nuts, or chocolate chips.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, until a light golden brown.

Let the cookies cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from "To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes" by Rosie Grant. © 2025 by Rosie Grant. Reproduced by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

     
For more info:

• "To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes" by Rosie Grant (Harvest), in Hardcover and eBook formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• GhostlyArchive in TikTok

Check out more recipes from the "Sunday Morning" 2025 Food Issue Recipe Index!